


Dolce Far Niente (Sweet Nothing)

by ordin_yeri



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Crushes, Friends to Lovers, M/M, rated for language, seriously they're all potty-mouthed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 05:38:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10269440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ordin_yeri/pseuds/ordin_yeri
Summary: Jaehyun doesn’t know how to confess to his crush, Doyoung. His friends decide that if he won't do something about the crush, they will. Four love letters later, Jaehyun wants to throttle the lot of them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ''Just for today, even love is bothersome  
> It’s sometimes delightful  
> This sweet hobby during a busy day" - Lazy Girl, Girls' Generation

“So when’s the wedding?”

Jaehyun sighed audibly as he stepped out the classroom door. “I literally sit next to him in class, Ten. That doesn’t mean we’re getting _married._ ”

Ten didn’t look convinced. “You can’t deny your heart.”

“Well as nice as this is, my heart right now is telling me that I need food so if we can preferably move on from standing right outside my classroom--”

“Oh my god, I didn’t know your future husband had his locker in this corridor.” Ten was grinning like the Cheshire Cat, looking down the busy corridor to where Jaehyun’s amber-haired seatmate was getting his lunch out of his locker.

“Can you maybe stop staring at him? He’ll think you’re checking him out…” Jaehyun mumbled, trying to drag his friend away to wherever food was being served. Ten only saw that as an opportunity to get closer.

“Oh, and you wouldn’t like it if I seemed to be checking him out?”

Ten at this point was basically dragging Jaehyun down the corridor, past other students who were not particularly impressed that they had been pushed into.

“That is not what I meant,” he replied, feeling somewhat relieved when the person they were apparently trailing shut his locker and walked away. Ten stopped the chase, looking satisfied.

“Of course not. Which is why you would have been so against him hearing me teasing you about this.”

“Remind me next time I see Johnny that I should tease you about your not-so-secret crush on him.” He received a horrified look in response.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t I? How about we agree to keep quiet about our feelings about these two people and--”

“SO YOU _DO_ LIKE DOYOUNG?”

Fuck. So much for being subtle about his damn crush.

 

 

 

Finally, Jaehyun was given the opportunity to eat. Education only serves one purpose after all - to fuel hunger. He sat in the canteen with the usual suspects: Ten, Taeyong, Yuta and Johnny. Ten was sat right next to Jaehyun, and kept giving him looks filled with smugness that yes, he had accidently admitted that he did in fact have a crush on his seatmate, but each look had a tinge on ‘please don’t tell Johnny that I’ve already planned out our potential wedding and what colour paint we’ll use for our bedroom walls’. They were even, that was the main thing. They both had something on each other. As long as that was the case, Jaehyun was safe and his little crush on Doyoung would be kept secret.

It wasn’t even anything that serious. As crushes come, this one was more of the ‘when the hell did you get so hot and why am I so attracted to you’ crush compared to Ten’s ‘if you so much as suggested you liked me I would drop to my knees and suck you off right there and then’ crush on Johnny.

His thoughts of safety were brought crashing to the ground as soon as Ten decided to open his mouth.

“I think we need to get Jaehyun laid,” he said between a mouthful of whatever shitty school food he’d been unfortunate enough to be landed with. Or maybe not so unfortunate. Jaehyun was beginning to think he deserved every last mouthful of shitty school food.

“You’re suggesting that today is different from any other day when we have the exact same goal,” Johnny quipped, earning a thumbs up from Ten.

“What’s the point in even trying to get him laid when he’s so pathetic that even someone who was head-over-heels in love with him would turn around and board the next flight out of the country as soon as he started to talk to them?” Yuta responded.

Good to know his friends thought so highly of him.

“Has the voice of reason got anything to add?” Ten asked Taeyong, who had been eating quietly.

“You want my input?” Ten nodded enthusiastically. “Don’t push the kid into doing anything he isn’t comfortable with.”

“At least _someone_ has my back,” Jaehyun said.

“Shhh no one cares. The _important_ thing is that we help your so far non-existent endeavours with your crush D--” Jaehyun shoved him hard to shut him up, Ten reappearing clutching the side he was shoved from.

“We had a deal!” Jaehyun whined.

“There was no formal agreement.”

“Are you planning to share this lovely conversation with the group or would you prefer for us to step outside while you two quarrel?” Yuta posed to the pair.

“I see no reason to share our deal that _didn’t take place_ ,” Ten smiled. “But today I found out that our Jaehyun _definitely_ has a crush on his seatmate which he confirmed to me.”

Cue chaos. The other three at the table became disinterested in their food and began demanding more answers. Jaehyun found himself thinking _this could have gone better._

“I can’t believe stone-hearted Jaehyun has _a crush_ on someone,” Yuta exclaimed.

“Yeah, but it’s _just_ a crush. It’s not like he’ll actually act on it,” Johnny added.

“Who even _is_ this person?” asked Taeyong.

Jaehyun decided this is what hell must be like.

 

 

 

Dinner ended and Jaehyun reluctantly found himself being escorted to his class by his band of friends, all of them (except for Ten) hoping to find out who their friend’s mysterious crush is. By now, Jaehyun realised he was in deep shit and that no matter how much he protested his friends (who he told himself he still cherished despite all this) still tagged along.

“So is this seatmate of yours actually hot?” provided Johnny, appropriate as always.

“Please shut up. He might walk past and actually hear you.”

“Why would that be a bad thing? Don’t you actually _want_ your crush to know that you like him?” asked Yuta.

“I think most people with a crush like to keep quiet about it,” said Taeyong.

“Ask Ten,” responded Jaehyun, smirking as his friend visibly stiffened.

“Why? Do you have a secret crush too?” teased Johnny. Ten looked more uncomfortable.

“No…” he managed. Jaehyun was satisfied.

As they reached the outside of Jaehyun’s class, the group paused and looked amongst themselves. Jaehyun wondered if they were seriously going to wait outside until everyone had gone in _just_ to check who his seatmate was.

“Haven’t you all got your own classes to go to?” he asked.

“Dude do you _really_ think we actually want to being running off to class early? Remind me how long you’ve known us?” Yuta joked. He was right: all of them were the type to hang back until the latest possible moment to make it to class. The only reason they were early today was so that they could check out Jaehyun’s classmates, and more importantly find out who his crush was.

“Whatever, I’m going in. If I see any of you peering into my class to try and spy you-know-who then I swear I will expose all of your most embarrassing secrets in the school newspaper.”

“Calm the fuck down, Satan.”

“We weren’t going to use his identity against you…”

“If Ten already knows I’ll just get him to tell me,” said Johnny, shrugging.

“And I’m sure he’ll be glad that he’s useful to you but I’m also sure he’s aware of what I’ve got on him,” Jaehyun said as he stepped into the classroom. He closed the door behind him and glared at his friends through the small window in the door. They got the message, and left. No matter what threats he threw at them, Ten was _definitely_ going to tell them within the next few minutes. God, he was so screwed.

As he made his way to his seat, the door was opened by none other than the man himself. Jaehyun didn’t know if he should be feeling overjoyed at being able to sit so close to such an attractive human being or whether he should be curling in embarrassment at the coming shit-storm he assumed would come when Ten spilled the beans on the situation.

Doyoung gave one of his warm smiles as he came over to their desk and began to unpack the books for the lesson. Jaehyun always found himself at a loss when trying to describe Doyoung. To him, Doyoung was like the sunshine. He was such a bright and warm personality, with not a bad bone in his body. He was smart (which was an added bonus for when Jaehyun was struggling with his work) and it certainly didn’t hurt that he was pretty attractive. Yep, he had fallen too deeply for him.

“Hi, how was your lunch?” Doyoung asked and sat down at the desk on Jaehyun’s right.

“Apart from my friends harassing me and the travesty that is the canteen food, pretty good.”

“Harassing you? What did you do to deserve that?” Concern flashed over his face. Jaehyun silently added ‘shows genuine care about problems’ to the list of things that Doyoung was.

“Uhm. Just the usual friendly harassment. You know how friends can be.”

“Not sure I can say that my friends have ever harassed me, but I can’t speak for your friends.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty intense. I think I eased the situation as much as possible, though.”

“As long as you’re fine, that’s the main thing.” Another smile. Jaehyun found himself smiling too. He didn’t deserve to know such a perfect human being.

Teacher Park entered the room, and the last few students scurried to their seats. Jaehyun felt his phone vibrating in his pocket and knew that Ten must have told them all who his crush was. He made a mental note to embarrass Ten in front of Johnny next time he saw him.

He couldn’t concentrate on what Teacher Park was saying or doing. He was chalking some math-looking things on the blackboard, but his phone kept vibrating. Jaehyun checked that Teacher Park was looking away, and fished out the phone to be greeted with 27 unread messages in the group chat, twelve texts from Yuta and one text from Taeyong.

_**TY:** btw ten told us (sent 14:03) _

Jaehyun had figured that much, and opened his thread of messages from Yuta next.

_**Yuta:** OH MY GOD (sent 14:02) _

_**Yuta:** YOU LIKE DOYOUNG HOLY SHIT (sent 14:02) _

_**Yuta:** DOES HE KNOW (sent 14:02) _

_**Yuta:** THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY (sent 14:03) _

_**Yuta:** YOU MADE MY DAY (sent 14:03) _

And the rest of the texts from Yuta were similar, so Jaehyun didn’t bother reading them all individually. This was getting out of hand. He opened the group chat, which was filled with similar messages.

_**Johnny:** IS THIS REAL _

_**Johnny:** I CAN’T BELIEVE _

_**Ten:** i promise it’s real  >:) _

_**Yuta:** THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE _

_**Yuta:** WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS _

_**TY:** i think you’re overreacting _

_**Ten:** no this is genuinely hilarious _

_**Ten:** you just need a sense of humour to get it lol _

_**Yuta:** buuuuuuurn _

_**Johnny:** yikes ty track got burnt _

_**TY:** i thought this conversation was about jhyun _

_**Yuta:** sorry got side-tracked :P _

Jaehyun was interrupted from reading more when he was elbowed in the side. He shoved his phone away and looked to Doyoung, who was beginning to write down sums on paper.

“Start writing or Teacher Park will notice you’ve not done shit,” Doyoung whispered, not looking up from his work.

Jaehyun looked up at the blackboard and became more confused with the mix of numbers and symbols in front of him. When the hell did algebra start looking so weird?

“I have no idea what the hell I’m supposed to be doing,” he whispered back. Doyoung pushed his paper, now a quarter filled with the sums and equations on the blackboard, and started pointing at some of the letters. Jaehyun quietly listened as Doyoung went into teacher mode, explaining how to work out each of the sums and watching Jaehyun try and answer them himself. He earned himself one of those smiles he cherished so much and a ‘well done’ when he answered the first one right by himself. Jaehyun was definitely in love.

 

 

 

The school bell rung, marking the end of the school day, and Jaehyun began throwing his books and other miscellaneous items into his rucksack. Doyoung tapped him on the shoulder, he turned to face him.

“I didn’t want to ask while class was on, but what were you looking at on your phone during the explanation? You had some very animated facial expressions going on and I’m a little curious what caused them,” he asked. Jaehyun knew he couldn’t tell the truth, at least not the whole truth, but he’d feel really guilty about lying.

“I can’t explain everything, but my friends were… harassing me again.”

“Seriously, I know you said that’s normal for your friends but if it’s bothering you, you _are_ allowed to tell them to stop.”

If only it were that easy.

“I would, but my friends are kind of… passionate about embarrassing me? Three quarters of them are, anyway.”

“Do you need to talk? Because, if you want, you can vent to me. I’m not due home for ages - my study group meeting got cancelled last minute and--”

“Yes. Can I?” Jaehyun had no idea why the fuck he had agreed to this. He had said yes, to venting to his crush about his crush. Sometimes, he questioned how his brain functioned. Doyoung, unaware of the massive fuck-up that was currently taking place, seemed pleased with this response.

“Come on, let’s go somewhere quiet and you can get all this off your chest for now.” Doyoung was glowing and gently grabbed Jaehyun’s arm to lead him in the direction of wherever the hell he was going to take him. Jaehyun threw his rucksack onto one shoulder and let himself be led by his seatmate to his fate.

 

 

 

‘Somewhere quiet’, referred to the town park apparently. Not the central part that bustled with people, next to the play area and the band stand. This part of the park was down a worn and eroding path into the thick spread of trees that if this were a less wealthy town, would probably be the prime lair for drug dealers and murderers. But this town was managing for itself. No drug problems, no murderers. Jaehyun wasn’t _quite_ at the end of his tether yet and wasn’t at the point where he was going to throttle Ten to death and become the town’s first murderer. Not yet, anyway.

Doyoung was leading the way, the stride in his walk suggesting that he’d been down this route many times. Jaehyun didn’t dare ask. He was already terrified about what he was going to actually tell Doyoung was happening, because admitting this whole thing was about a crush on _him_ would probably not go down well. Maybe it would lead to Jaehyun being the town’s first _victim_ of murder instead.

They reached an area where the trees were more sparse, and the leaves on the ground were trampled. A fallen tree lay on the ground, its bark flaking off in places. Doyoung sat on a lower part of the fallen trunk, signalling for Jaehyun to join him.

“So… is there a beginning to this harassment or is it a bit of a mess?” he asked as Jaehyun sat on his left.

“Honestly, one of my friends has been… let’s say winding me up… about this thing for maybe the past few months? The others found out today and have been enjoying themselves getting involved.”

“Am I allowed to ask what they’re actually bothering you with?” Doyoung said gently, concern lining his voice.

“You can ask, but I’m not sure I can give you a full answer. It’s complicated.”

There wasn’t a reply to that. They sat in silence for a minute or two. Jaehyun began wondering why he’d let his crush drag him off to the middle of a fucking forest to talk about his feelings. This had all the makings of a confession scene in a rom-com and Jaehyun wasn’t ready to move towards that part of his crush scenario.

“Well, whatever it is, it must be pretty important if you can’t tell me any details.” Did Jaehyun hear a hint of disappointment there? No, he was probably imagining it.

“It was trivial until Ten got involved.”

“He’s the one who waits for you after class, right?”

Jaehyun nodded.

“Tell him to leave off for a while, say you’re not in the mood for all this.”

He had tried that at every occasion when Ten had been teasing about how Jaehyun always looked at Doyoung with heart-eyes, how he didn’t bother to remember anyone’s names in his class except Doyoung, and at how love-struck he looked that one time Doyoung was part of a presentation in an assembly.

“That won’t work, believe me. He’s stubborn. Not even my attempts at blackmailing him stopped him from telling everyone else,” he gave a pitiful smile and looked down at the leafy ground.

“What if I told him?”

Nope. No. No way.

“No offense, but I think Ten would take you down in a conversation. He only listens to himself as reason,” _and Johnny_ , he thought with amusement.

“We’ll see about that.”

 

 

 

Doyoung walked him home from the depths of the park, reinforcing this claim that he will speak to Ten. Jaehyun knew that wouldn’t go well, and hoped his seatmate would forget his promise overnight. He walked upstairs, headed to his room and threw himself on the bed. He checked his phone that he’d wisely put on mute after the amount of messages he was getting from his friends. Unsurprisingly, the number of unread messages in the group chat was now edging towards three figures. It was probably just Yuta spamming shit in the chat as usual, but Jaehyun felt dread that the shit would be about _him_ this time.

He didn’t scroll through all 93 unread messages, only glancing at the last couple.

 ** _Yuta:_** _so tomorrow_

_**Ten:** yes _

_**Ten:** we proceed tomorrow _

_**Johnny:** i’m 200% in on this _

_**TY:** why am i friends with you _

_**Ten:** because “we make you look more attractive compared to us” _

_**TY:** thanks for the reminder _

Jaehyun didn’t like the sound of whatever the hell they were planning for tomorrow. He typed a reply to them:

_**Jae:** you assholes know i can see all of your messages _

_**Jae:** ten you are a dead man just you wait _

Refusing to deal with whatever sassy replies he was bound to get back, he turned off his phone and threw it away from him. Too much had happened in one day and it sounded like tomorrow was going to be much more intense. Jaehyun was done with the world. He refused to put up with anymore bullshit that day and decided he would have an early night. After all, the whole crush situation couldn’t hurt him while he was asleep.

 

 

 

_They sat side by side on the tree trunk in silence. Jaehyun couldn’t explain his situation, or he was sure he would die of embarrassment there and then. Doyoung looked fidgety - he was bouncing his feet that didn’t quite reach the ground and his hands were twitching. What was up with him?_

_“Hey, Doyoung?” The boy in question looked at him. “What’s up?”_

_The boy let out a weary sigh. “You know how it is when you’re so in love with someone and you’re scared they aren’t so in love with you too?”_

_“Of course I know. I’ve been that way ever since we first sat together at the beginning of the year.”_

_“You took the words right out of my mouth.”_

_Jaehyun hadn’t realised how close they were sat to each other. He gazed at Doyoung, who was shyly looking away. Now was his chance. He leaned in just an inch more and--_

 

 

 

_He was in a bedroom he didn’t recognise, under the quilts. Jaehyun couldn’t make out everything in the room, but it looked like a typical high schooler’s bedroom except maybe tidier. Next to him lay Doyoung, his head leaning on Jaehyun’s shoulder._

_“You mean so much to me, you know that?” the elder asked._

_“Of course I know. I just hope you know I feel the same about you.”_

_“What, hopelessly in love?” Doyoung giggled._

_“I’d be a fool not to be.”_

 

 

 

Jaehyun sat up with a start. His room was dark. His whole body felt hot and sweaty. He glanced over to his digital alarm clock - it was ten past two in the morning. All Jaehyun wanted was to go back to sleep, because no one should be allowed to function this early in the morning.

He thought he’d be safe while asleep. He didn’t count on his mind deciding to go on crush-overload and make him regret everything. All of the shit his brain decided to throw into that dream was going to haunt him when he was in classes with Doyoung in the morning. Jaehyun just knew that he’d be distracted by the thought of what nearly happened in the dream that he wished he’d had the courage to do in real life.

Well, he was awake now. He wiped his forehead, his arm becoming moist with the sweat. The dream could have been _much worse_. Jaehyun could hardly imagine how he would have coped if he’d had a sex dream and then had to sit next to the other person involved. Thank God his brain didn’t hate him that much.

Now, he was too awake for his liking. Might as well pass some time while he was unwilling awake. Jaehyun sat up in his bed, pushing back his duvet covers and glancing around his darkened room for wherever he'd tossed his phone before he'd gone to sleep. It was lying face-down a few feet away from the bed.

Jaehyun retrieved the phone and turned it on; he found himself greeted with far too many unread messages. Choosing to read the conversation with the least amount of messages, he opened the collection of text messages Taeyong had been sending to him.

_**TY:** are you even looking at any of these messages (sent 18:42) _

_**TY:** you probably should (sent 18:42) _

_**TY:** it might brace you for the shit ten planned for tomorrow (sent 18:43) _

_**TY:** just a heads up (sent 18:43) _

_**TY:** i’m sorry in advance (sent 18:44) _

That didn’t fill Jaehyun with confidence. The messages had confirmed to him that his friends weren’t going to sit back and let him deal with this little crush in private. He didn’t like thinking about what they had planned. If Taeyong was already apologising to him, it couldn’t be good.

 

 

 

Jaehyun sat in the canteen the next morning, scrolling through social media on his phone. He was waiting for his friends to arrive and explain to him what the fuck they’d been doing while he was away. He knew he should have been more careful when talking about his crush around Ten. His accidental admission had escalated this mess to the next level, whatever the hell the next level would be.

Someone sat down next to him, and he looked up from his phone. Johnny gave him a sheepish look.

“Morning.”

“Get to the point - what the fuck has Ten done?” Jaehyun gave him a hard stare, Johnny winced.

“Uhm. I don’t know what I can tell you.” That wasn’t reassuring.

“Do you have any words of comfort before I have to go to class with you-know-who?”

“Good luck.”

Jaehyun decided he should reevaluate his choice in friends.

 

 

 

He chose to go early to class - that way he could face his fate sooner rather than later. He was ten minutes early as he went into the classroom and to his seat, unpacking his notebook. Other students began to file into the classroom, but Jaehyun couldn’t help but notice the normally punctual Doyoung wasn’t present yet. His thoughts went back to after school yesterday, sat on the tree trunk trying his best to talk about his feelings without mentioning _those_ feelings. He was reminded of his bordering-on-inappropriate dream that night, about how that evening could have been if he knew how to be romantic at all.

Teacher Park entered the classroom. Where the hell was his seatmate? The lesson had actually started and he _still_ hadn’t turned up. Ten minutes passed before the door opened again. Doyoung muttered various apologies as he rushed to his seat. He looked flustered.

Jaehyun waited until the class was set to do their own work before he dared question his seatmate.

“You’re never late,” he said as he glanced to the elder. Doyoung didn’t look up from his work.

“Is something wrong?” Jaehyun tried again. Instead of answering, he reached into his school bag and pulled out a collection of envelopes, placing them in front of Jaehyun.

“You read them and tell me if there’s something wrong.”

Jaehyun looked at the envelopes with curiosity, before picking up the topmost one and reaching to pull out the contents. He unfolded it and froze as he realised what the hell he was looking at.

_‘This is probably a surprise to you but me - your loveable seatmate - has a HUGE crush on you. I’m too cripplingly shy to tell you in person, so here’s a letter to confess how I really feel! I hope you feel the same!’_

The letter ended with his own name. He felt sick as he recognised the handwriting as Johnny’s. Those assholes had gone too far. Jaehyun had to know what else they’d done, so he opened the next letter which was straight to the point:

_‘Roses are red, violets are blue. You jump on my dick, I’ll jump on yours too ;)’_

He stared blankly at Ten’s handiwork. His hands were shaking at the thought that his little crush wasn’t so secret anymore. The only hope he had was that Doyoung hadn’t taken any of them seriously but judging by how panicked he’d looked since entering the classroom, he believed them. Jaehyun couldn’t look back at him. He thought he might cry. Instead of facing that even more embarrassing prospect, he pushed the letters away from him and quickly headed for the door.

Teacher Park called after him as he left the room, and sped up to the bathroom. His still-shaking hands pushed open the bathroom door. He walked directly to the first stall and locked the door behind himself before leaning back against it.

Head back, taking deep breaths, Jaehyun willed himself to stay calm. This was a disaster. He’d only read half of the letters and both of those were terrible for him. _Especially Ten’s letter_. He didn’t dare think how bad the other two could have been. When the hell did they even write them? More importantly, how did they get them to Doyoung?

One thing was for sure - he was going throttle Ten _then_ expose his crush on Johnny. Eye for an eye, crush for a crush. He could at least make the mastermind of this plan suffer as well.

There was no way in hell he could return to class now, especially now he knew that Doyoung would have questions for him. All he had to do was wait it out until he could retrieve his rucksack, then somehow avoid having to see his seatmate preferably until the end of time. Simple.

 

 

 

Class had ended, Jaehyun waited another ten minutes, then left the bathroom to get his bag. When he reached the classroom, he felt slight disappointment that his seatmate had cleared off. He threw his notebook into his bag, picked it up and left the classroom. Next, he would find the people who’d caused the mess and ruin their day too.

He took strides to the canteen. It felt like people were staring at him, but he knew he was just paranoid. No one else knew about those letters - the only thing suspicious he’d done was walking out of class and not returning. The canteen was dead ahead and Jaehyun could already see the guilty crowd looking like they had committed murder. He approached them and Yuta spotted him.

“Uhm, hi Jae?” he tried as Jaehyun sat down in front of him.

“Don’t play games with me. Just tell me why the hell you all did it?” he replied in his most patient voice. The group didn’t make eye contact with him.

“It’s not as bad as you might think,” Taeyong said.

“Then you clearly don’t understand what you’ve contributed to.”

“How did it go?” Ten asked carefully.

“Great. He turned up late to class and showed me your fucking letters. He won’t even fucking look at me after reading your stupid poem, Ten, and whatever shit the rest of you loaded into them.”

The group was silent for a moment, until Taeyong asked, “Did you read them all?”

“I didn’t need to fucking read them all. The damage was done. Thanks a fucking lot.” Ten was fidgeting beside him, after all this was _his_ master-plan.

“At least you don’t have to worry about telling him about your feelings now,” added Johnny. He earned a glare in response.

“Yes, because _this_ was exactly how I planned on confessing to my crush. Thanks for your help,” he responded, bitterly. “I don’t think you realise that I have to sit next to him in my classes so this is going to be the most awkward thing ever. Again, thank you _so much_ for that.”

“Look, I don’t know what these dumbasses wrote,” started Taeyong. “But I for one can tell you that I didn’t write anything horrible on behalf of you.”

“You still contributed to this disaster. I only came here to tell you that I will have my revenge on you all, but especially Ten. Just you wait.” With his final threat (and the satisfyingly horrified look on Ten’s face), he left. Even sitting with them was making him feel angry. On his walk out of the canteen, a familiar face made brief eye-contact with him before the person himself turned away in embarrassment. Now he knew that Doyoung was feeling the same about this fiasco.

 

 

 

Attending the rest of the day’s classes was just as awkward as he imagined. He didn’t once make conversation with Doyoung like he would on a normal day. They didn’t even make eye contract. Each of them kept their things as close to their side of the desk as possible. It was almost as if one of them had an infectious disease the other was avoiding catching.

Jaehyun had earned himself a detention for walking out of class that morning. He knew he deserved it - he probably caused quite a scene after all. As the rest of the students packed their bags at the end of the day, leaving to go home, Jaehyun remained rooted in his seat for the detention. Doyoung wasn’t packing up at lightning speed like Jaehyun would have expected, lingering at the desk.

“Your friends wrote them,” he stated, still not making eye contact.

“Yeah. I’m so sorry.”

“They’re the ones who should be sorry, not you,” was the reply. “At least you’ll get some time alone during detention.”

Those were his departing words, as he picked up his school bag and left without looking back. The albeit brief conversation suggested that Doyoung didn’t hate him at least. He had a chance to redeem this, if he somehow found the confidence to repair the injured friendship.

Jaehyun was the only person in detention. He was given a lecture about health and safety - how it’s dangerous to walk out of class and not have the teacher know where you are. He knew all that. That wasn’t why he left. Teacher Park told him that during the remainder of the detention he could be getting on with his homework, but he found himself struggling to concentrate while sat at the desk where he’d fallen in love and had his heart broken. Homework didn’t matter compared to this. Doyoung was the only thing that mattered to him right now.

 

 

 

When he got home after the detention, Jaehyun received some very guilty text messages trying to appease him. The messages from Taeyong were the most interesting, because he wasn’t bothering to apologise and was insisting he hadn’t done anything wrong.

_**TY:** ten told us to write letters from you to him confessing your ‘true feelings’ (sent 17:02) _

_**TY:** i honestly don’t know what shit they wrote (sent 17:03) _

_**TY:** i didn’t do what they did (sent 17:03) _

_**TY:** all i wrote was the truth (sent 17:03) _

_**TY:** don’t be mad please (sent 17:04) _

While it was true he’d only read two of the letters, he somehow doubted that the other two would be any different. Taeyong was the most sensible in their group of friends and most likely to have acted rationally, but the fact he even joined in made Jaehyun question how much he trusted him.

Jaehyun opened the text conversation between him and Johnny, not bothering to read his pleads for forgiveness and typed his revenge:

_**Jae:** i promised to expose ten if he spread my secret (sent 17:15) _

_**Jae:** he’s got a huge ass crush on you mate (sent 17:15) _

_**Jae:** much worse than mine (sent 17:16) _

_**Jae:** believe me he’s told me some of the dreams he’s had (sent 17:16) _

_**Jae:** they were gross (sent 17:16) _

_**Jae:** anyway, enjoy the rest of your day (sent 17:17) _

On a normal day, he’d have felt guilty about sending something like that, but today sure as fuck weren’t a normal day and Jaehyun was beyond giving a shit about the repercussions of his actions.

Right now, he could curl up and die. If he’d wanted to confess to his crush, he’d have done it himself. It was such a dick move interfering like his friends had. Now, he just had to mend what they had broken. Jaehyun would probably have to tell Doyoung that the letters were true (except Ten’s disgusting poem - he wasn’t that creepy to have thought shit like _that_ about him). How he would do it was another hurdle he’d have to jump over. Jaehyun knew he definitely wasn’t involving his friends in this.

 

 

 

The next morning, Jaehyun walked to school alone. He didn’t want any company. His friends were assholes and they needed to realise that. Just sending texts begging for forgiveness wasn’t enough for him to actually forgive them. If they’d done something as trivial as lost one of his pens, Jaehyun would have accepted just a ‘sorry’. This, however, had more serious consequences that Ten hadn’t thought about before jumping into the situation. He had a bad habit of doing that, and Jaehyun had taught him a lesson this time.

He’d received just one text in response from Johnny after he’d helpfully exposed Ten’s crush on him:

_**Johnny:** holy shit (sent 17:29) _

The reply could have been either positive or negative. Even during his period of being pissed off at Ten, he secretly was hoping as his friend that the reply was positive. This was one of the reasons Jaehyun considered himself a good friend, evidently much better than his friends who didn’t have good intentions in their interference with the stupid letters.

He arrived at school early again, heading straight for class even though it wouldn’t start for at least another forty minutes. Jaehyun sat down in his seat, dropping his bag on the floor beside his chair, and banged his head on the desk repeatedly. Maybe if he gave himself enough of a shock he’d wake up from this fucking nightmare.

“Jesus Christ, are you trying to give yourself brain damage or something?” came the voice he didn’t want to be hearing right now. Jaehyun looked up and saw Doyoung standing in front of him, looking very concerned.

“I wish.”

Doyoung sat down in his seat, Jaehyun becoming hyper-aware that this was him _willingly_ sitting near him after yesterday.

“You shouldn’t joke like that. Having brain damage would ruin your life.”

“I doubt my life could be ruined even more,” Jaehyun smiled sadly.

“Did… did you know they were going to give me those letters?” Doyoung asked carefully.

“Of course I fucking didn’t.” Doyoung winced slightly when he swore. “Sorry. I swear more when I’m stressed.”

“Noted. Have you talked to them yet? About how you feel?”

“Letting one of them know how I felt was what _caused_ this. I don’t think I can trust them with my feelings ever again.”

Jaehyun looked away, feeling nervous that this conversation was even taking place. It could only be heading in one direction, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to be going there yet.

“Do you believe them?” Jaehyun asked, glancing back.

“I wasn’t sure I did until I saw your reaction yesterday. I’m guessing you read that eloquently-written poem?”

He nodded. So his own reaction was what gave him away. Jaehyun felt annoyed that he’d reacted that bad.

“I can tell it’s bothering you and that you’re not someone who likes talking about their feelings, so how about we agree not to think about this until you’re ready?” If he’d ever doubted that Doyoung was an actual angel, those doubts had been thrown away at that instance.

“Please. Again, I’m sorry this happened.”

“Sorry about what?” Doyoung replied smiling, although Jaehyun sensed some pain behind that normally natural smile.

“You’re a lifesaver, honestly.”

A genuine smile was the response to that.

 

 

 

After class ended for break, he saw his guilty friends waiting outside no doubt to apologise again. Jaehyun walked out of the classroom and to them, signalling for them to walk with him. They followed, then he noticed that one of them wasn’t there.

“Where’s Ten?” he asked.

“I believe he’s hiding in the library from someone,” Taeyong answered. Jaehyun felt amusement that Ten was getting a taste of his own medicine.

“He’s not answering my texts, so I’ve no fucking clue what’s gotten into him,” Yuta said, shrugging. Johnny had not yet responded to this talk about Ten after Jaehyun had kindly exposed him last night.

“I _could_ fill you all in, but I’m technically responsible for this anyway and even though I have plenty of reason to hate him right now I’d feel guilty about spreading this secret.”

They walked to outside of the main block of classrooms, sitting down at a picnic bench facing each other. The group looked uncomfortable.

“How’s the situation with Doyoung?” Johnny asked quietly.

“The situation that you lot made worse? We barely talked yesterday, and we’ve agreed not to mention it. Thanks a lot, by the way.”

“You know we’re sorry. This was just one of those occasions where we acted before we thought,” Yuta said.

“Yeah, well, it could have been much worse. Let’s just move on - I’m fed up of all the apology texts.”

The group nodded in unanimous agreement.

“Before we move on completely, can I ask something?” said Taeyong.

“Go on.”

“Have you got his number?”

“Why the hell would I have his number?”

“It’s just, maybe you should consider asking for it. So you can tell him your side of all this in your own time, and so you won’t have to face him when you tell him.”

Jaehyun shrugged, but thought that he had never misjudged Taeyong as the voice of reason in the group. When the time came, talking over phone about feelings and crap would be much easier than face to face. Not yet, but soon, he decided he would ask for his crush’s phone number.

 

 

 

Even days after agreeing not to mention the letters with Doyoung, he couldn’t help but still feel painfully awkward around him. It was the fact that the elder knew that Jaehyun had some kind of feelings for him - it was embarrassing. His secret was known before he’d even shared it.

Jaehyun’s friendship group had somewhat reunited, avoiding any reference to the stupid letters. Ten still looked guilty about doing something so heartless to his friend, and had become visibly jumpy whenever Johnny would speak to him. While the younger had refused to answer any of Jaehyun’s questions about the issue, Johnny had mentioned that he’d asked Ten if Jaehyun’s texts were true and Ten had bolted. It was reassuring for Jaehyun that Ten had acted similarly to him when faced with the knowledge that their crush knew about their feelings. Now _he_ felt justified in bolting out of class that one time.

Jaehyun got into school that morning, heading for his locker in the corridor by his classroom. He fished for the key in his pocket, feeling its rough edge before pulling it out. Key in the lock, he turned and opened the door. A piece of paper fell out as the door swung open, falling to Jaehyun’s feet. Curious, he bent down and reached for it before unfolding it.

_‘I know leaving notes in people’s lockers is such a middle school thing, but I thought this would be the only way I could express my thoughts without sounding stupid (even though I probably do anyway!). We agreed not to talk about those letters but I still feel a little weird because of them. Please can we talk about them? I totally understand if you’re not ready! I just don’t want to keep dancing around you like I haven’t got a million questions to ask. I come in early every morning and sit behind the sports block on the grass. See you (hopefully) soon! - D’_

He felt a little flustered reading the note. Doyoung wrote in such an animated manner, it was refreshing to read. He’d been invited to talk about those letters which was an incredibly daunting prospect. Jaehyun had been trying to mentally prepare himself for the day he’d inevitably have to talk about them, but it still felt far too soon. He wasn’t one to leave his crush waiting, however, so he found himself reluctantly heading to behind the sports block, on the grass where he would supposedly find Doyoung.

 

 

 

He sat down beside Doyoung, in the shade cast by the sports building behind them. The elder smiled to him.

“You got my note?” he asked. Jaehyun nodded in response.

“I did. Can I be honest and say that this still feels too early to talk about… _everything_?”

“I get that. I don’t expect you to open your heart here and now, but I just want to make a start.”

Jaehyun ran his fingers through the grass, doing anything to distract himself from the conversation.

“Would it be easier if I asked you questions and you can choose to answer them or not?” Doyoung tried again.

“Please.”

The elder audibly inhaled.

“Okay. First question: how long?”

“Uhm, maybe after a month of sharing classes? I can’t really remember.” He felt calmer - that wasn’t as hard to answer as he’d expected. “Next question?”

“Right. Can I ask… why?” he said gently, his eyes moving to where Jaehyun’s hands were moving through the grass. Jaehyun stilled. He didn’t know why. He never questioned his heart. One day, he’d just realised how deeply in love he was and from that day he’d just accepted it.

“I don’t know how I can answer that. And I promise I’m not avoiding the question,” said Jaehyun quietly. He felt something touch his right hand just slightly, when looking to see he saw Doyoung’s hand was leaning against his. He felt his heart beginning to speed up - this was taking a turn he hadn’t expected.

“I only have one more question.” Doyoung started. “What do you plan to do now that I know?”

It felt like a trick question. There was no way he could know what answer his seatmate wanted to hear. If he said that he wanted to be open about his feelings, what if Doyoung didn’t like that? If he said he’d rather go back to their seatmate friendship, what if Doyoung was offended?

Jaehyun looked over to the elder as if he’d rather him provide his own answer. They made eye contact; it felt like electric running through his body. The only thing he wanted to do right now was to close the gap and make all his dreams come true, but the school bell rang clear from the sports building. As he went to stand up and go to class, Doyoung grabbed onto his wrist and prevented him from leaving.

“I don’t know what you want from me, but we _can’t_ be late for class unless--”

Doyoung leaned towards him, making their lips meet briefly before separating. The distance between them was still not much, Jaehyun found his breathing had begun speeding up out of the shock from the action.

“Teacher Park can give us week-long detentions for all I care. Ever since I read those letters, I’ve been thinking about what I can do about them. At first, I thought they were bullshit and they were trying to provoke me into doing something I’d regret. When you asked me if I believed them, I knew they were real and I decided to figure out if I felt the same.

The last thing I wanted to do was to let you down. One of those letters told me that the writer had found out that you… you _loved_ me… and that after all the time he’d known you he could say that you’re a good person who deserves to be happy. That letter bothered me most, because I thought the same things about you and I barely knew you compared to whoever wrote it. I figured that meant I should do my best to make you happy.”

Jaehyun felt overwhelmed with this sudden admission. He’d not read that letter, but he felt gratitude to whoever had written it and got him this far. He was speechless, providing a wide smile in response instead of words.

“I’ve never done this before, you know all this feelings and stuff, so I hope I did it right for you,” Doyoung said, letting go of Jaehyun’s wrist and instead took hold of his hand properly.

“This all feels like a dream. Or a Disney film. Either way I’m ecstatic,” Jaehyun beamed, Doyoung giving him a similar smile.

“Aww, does that make you my princess?” he teased.

“Shut up, Prince Charming.”

Jaehyun moved his free hand to Doyoung’s cheek, moving in and kissing him back. His eyes fell closed and squeezed Doyoung’s hand.

Someone nearby coughed loudly - the couple jumped apart and looked in the direction of the sound. A teacher stood over them, glaring down.

“The school bell signifies class time, _not_ time for your own personal pleasure. I will be informing your teacher about these activities you prefer to partake in rather than your lessons and make sure you receive suitable punishment. Now, go to class!”

They got to their feet and began to sprint to the classroom. Jaehyun felt flustered that they’d been caught, but Doyoung grabbed his hand again and pulled him into a faster pace. Apparently _someone_ was enjoying this.

“Why are you so damn happy?” Jaehyun asked as he was pulled along.

“Because if I have to be in detention with anyone, I’d definitely want to spend it with you.”

  

* * *

 

_EXTRA._

Jaehyun lay on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. A warm, and now familiar, hand lay in his with their fingers intertwined.

“You never showed me all those letters, you know. I only ever saw two of them.”

“I think they’re still in my bag, if you want to look?” Doyoung asked.

“Go on. I’m curious.”

The hand left his and the weight on the bed shifted. A few moments later, several envelopes were pushed into his right hand. Jaehyun sat up on the bed, looked over to Doyoung who gave him a loving smile and then he opened the envelopes. The first one he opened was Ten’s ‘masterpiece’. As crude as it was, Jaehyun had written a similar note inspired by it to Johnny on behalf of Ten that Valentine’s Day. Now, he didn’t like to be boastful, but Jaehyun was pretty sure that his handiwork was the reason he caught the two of them making out in the canteen that day.

He cast that letter aside, removing the letter inside the next. Jaehyun unfolded it and glanced at the words written on the page.

_‘Letters are old-fashioned, and I know I’m young but I like to think I’m also very old-fashioned. I’m writing to confess to you, of course, but I suppose you knew that already? I bet you like me too, right? I’d love to hear you say it to me, love Jaehyun.’_

That was Yuta’s letter - blunt and to the point. Jaehyun opened the next letter and saw what must be the letter in question. It was much longer than the other three, the handwriting much neater too.

_‘Hello. I don’t really know who you are, but I’ve been told to write a letter to you on behalf of my friend. You’re my friend’s seatmate in class. Today, I was told that he had a crush on you. He didn’t want us to know, so he must be sincere. I imagine the other three letters you’ll receive are going to be heavy-handed and full of suggestive material so I’ll just tell you the truth: if Jaehyun loves you, then you must be a good person. His judgement is rarely wrong, so I assume it isn’t now either. He’s a good person too - I’ve known him for years and I've watched him grow up into the person he is now. He deserves someone kind and patient like himself. If you really are as good a person as he thinks, then please make him happy and give him what he wants. I only want the best for him, I hope you do too.’_

Jaehyun exhaled heavily once he finished reading. Taeyong must have written that about him since only he actually knew how to compliment someone so genuinely. He’d thank him later for that.

“So? Are you satisfied now you’ve read them all?” Doyoung questioned.

“Somewhat. I feel like I’ve been ignoring one of them on purpose, though.”

“Which one?”

Jaehyun held up Ten’s letter so Doyoung could see which one it was. He smirked as the elder realised what he was looking at. He was blushing when he removed the letter from Jaehyun’s hand, placing it on the bed.

“Your wish is my command.”

“Pretty sure that’s not one of Prince Charming’s lines.”

“Who cares?”

“Well, I believe in accuracy.”

“You aren’t a princess, shut up.”

“And you aren’t charming.” Doyoung gave him a disbelieving look. “Alright, maybe you _are_.”

_FIN._

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thanks for sticking around and reading this. I'm a new member of the NCT fandom, but I've fallen so deeply for them all that I knew I had to write something. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. As with anyone else, I'd love to hear feedback. Have a great day!


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